Lighthouse Project - Chapter Two: The Koreshan Unity played big role in Lee County

JENNA BUZZACCO-FOERSTER

12:00 AM, Apr 1, 2012

The remaining Koreshans left property to the state. It became a park, and about a dozen structures, including Teed's home, remain.

Lexey Swall, Greg Kahn and Jennifer Whitney/Staff

The charismatic Cyrus Teed stands on the grounds of the Koreshan settlement. Teed considered himself a Christian prophet who would one day transform Estero into a utopian city of 10 million.

Courtesy Koreshan State Historic Site

The arts were a big part of the Koreshan community. Koreshans put on theatrical performances and had a full band.

Courtesy of Mimi Straub, Estero Historical Society

Scott Ritter poses for a portrait on the grounds of the Koreshan settlement. Ritter's great grandmother was Rose Gilbert, one of the members of the Planetary Court. Ritter said he feels like a part of him is a Koreshan.

Cyrus Teed had a dream. He came to Estero looking to build Utopia: A city of 10 million along the coast of Southwest Florida.

It seemed possible in 1894 when Teed and his followers first landed in Estero. They had land — more than 300 acres given to them by Gustave Damkoehler, Estero's first homesteader — and by the turn of the century the Koreshan settlement made up a large chunk of Lee County's population.

But a dozen years after first arriving in Estero the dream of a New Jerusalem would start to unravel and the Koreshan Unity would begin its slow descent into obscurity. Still, some experts say the Koreshans left a lasting impact on Southwest Florida.

Had the Koreshans not arrived, development could have been much slower, said Robert Brooks, park manager at Koreshan State Park in Estero.

"Their business supplied the materials needed to build the area ... they contributed significantly to the growth," he said. "But it wasn't all just work and religion. It was a balance of life."

The faith — based, in part, on the belief that life existed inside a hollow sphere and mankind lived inside the Earth — started after Teed had a vision in 1869 of God in the form of a woman. The woman, according to a paper about Teed by Peter Hicks, told Teed the secret of the universe and his place in it.

The vision sparked Teed's faith, and after bouncing around the United States for a couple of decades, the Koreshans — taken from the name Koresh, the Biblical equivalent of Cyrus — settled in Southwest Florida.

But Estero wasn't Teed's first choice. Instead, he came looking to buy a development on Pine Island. The price, however, was too steep and Teed and a handful of followers returned to Chicago, but not before leaving a copy of his newspaper at the train station.

Damkoehler found that paper and invited the Koreshans back to the area with a promise of land in Estero. That land — which at the time encompassed most of south Lee County and Fort Myers Beach — would become home base for a religion that was based on communal living, celibacy and equality.

Some of the key beliefs centered around women's rights, and Brooks said Teed put women in charge of most of his major businesses.

The women in the community's ruling class were considered part of the Planetary Court, and were often called the seven sisters of the Koreshan Planetary Court.

Scott Ritter's great-grandmother, Rose Gilbert, was one of those seven.

Gilbert arrived in Estero in 1896 with her mother. Ritter said there is no record of his great-great grandmother staying with the Koreshans, but Gilbert stayed — and believed in the tenets of the faith — until her death in 1953.

Not everyone in Gilbert's family was a supporter. Rose Gilbert had a son, Deane Gilbert, in New York in 1900. She returned to the settlement in 1901, and Deane Gilbert stayed there with his mother for about 16 years. But Ritter said when his grandfather was 16 or 17 years old, he "walked out and made his way to New York."

But by the time Deane Gilbert left the settlement, the faith was already in the midst of a downward spiral.

Teed died in 1908 following injuries suffered in a 1906 fight. Teed told followers he would be reincarnated and be back in six, although Brooks said it was never clear what that six signified. When Teed failed to come back after his death, followers began to question the beliefs. Questions also arose over who would take over the leadership of the community.

But their self-sustaining lifestyle — the settlement had several businesses including a print works, bakery and a general store — is what kept the community going until the 1960s. There also was Hedwig Michel.

Michel fled Germany during World War II and took over the community. She tried to revive the faith and "wound up ruling the roost by the fact she was the youngest."

Her efforts didn't work, and in 1961 the remaining Koreshans deeded the land over to the state in an effort to preserve their community. That land is now Koreshan State Park.

But Brooks said the park isn't the only lasting impression the Koreshans left on the community. They were fond of the arts, and brought a full band with them when they arrived. They also cultivated gardens and created a mini-city — complete with electricity and dozens of buildings — when most people were living in thatched-roof houses or tents.

"It was a lifestyle," he said. "They wanted a city life."

And while there are no believers alive, Koreshan descendants still live in Estero and the legacy lives on through business — such as a printing company owned by a family who learned the trade on the Koreshan settlement — and charitable donations made through the College of Life Foundation.

The foundation is the remnant of the corporate arm of the Koreshan Unity, and Charles Dauray, chairman and CEO, said the foundation focuses on preservation with an emphasis on the Koreshans. The organization in 2011 donated $60,000 to fund a program in museum studies at Florida Gulf Coast University.

Ritter said descendents aren't afraid to discuss their Koreshan history.

"I am proud," he said. "I think they were a ... very industrious, hardworking people with a Utopian mission who actually tried to live it."